{"id":526,"date":"2017-03-29T13:47:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T13:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2017-03-29T14:20:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T14:20:22","slug":"healdsburg-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"Healdsburg Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Healdsburg is the gateway to the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County and a backdoor into the Russian River area as well.\u00a0 We think it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s Sonoma\u2019s culinary capital and it\u2019s quite full of tourists at all times of the year.\u00a0 These days it\u2019s also the home of many in-town tasting rooms of some distinction.<\/p>\n

There is some controversy over how to pronounce the town\u2019s name.\u00a0 Is it HELDS-burg or HEELDS-burg?\u00a0 For a long time we said the former but now some locals tell us that the latter is correct.<\/p>\n

We remember when the town, however you pronounce it, was a sleepy, almost dusty farmers\u2019 village.\u00a0 The first time that we visited Healdsburg together, in 2000, there was only one restaurant open where we could find lunch served at tables, as opposed a sandwich shop with fare to eat in the park.\u00a0 If you went wine tasting in those days, it was a good idea to pack a picnic.\u00a0 For the most part, we avoided going into Healdsburg when we tasted wines in Sonoma County.<\/p>\n

Then in 2006 the New York Times published an article entitled, \u201cHealdsburg, Calif., Emerges as a\u00a0 Dining Destination\u201d http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/08\/20\/travel\/20choicesideweb.html<\/a> .\u00a0 Was this the same place we knew?\u00a0 Indeed not; Healdsburg had grown, flowered and become a destination in itself.\u00a0 Of the restaurants mentioned in the article, Cyrus has decamped for Napa town, but Willi\u2019s Seafood and Raw Bar is as good as ever and Charlie Palmer\u2019s Dry Creek Kitchen is still sublime.\u00a0 Alas, Bistro Ralph and its heavenly short ribs is now a memory but it has been replaced by an Italian bistro, Scopa.\u00a0 Baci is another Italian choice down Healdsburg Avenue; Caf\u00e9 Lucia serves nouveau Portuguese meals; and the Healdsburg Bar and Grill is there for a good, honest hamburger.\u00a0 And if you still want that picnic, you can buy your gourmet victuals at the Oakville Grocery or Shelton\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Although the aforementioned tasting rooms and restaurants are a more than adequate reason to visit Healdsburg, one of the great pleasures of the town is just walking around the plaza at the center of town.\u00a0 Okay, it\u2019s touristy but it\u2019s for a higher class of tourists, as snobbish as that may be.\u00a0 There are galleries, ice cream shops, a kitchenware store, a few hotels and some bakeries.\u00a0 No tee shirteries to be seen. In the center of all that is the plaza, a more than century-old park with towering trees and a bandstand in the middle.\u00a0 Often the square hosts markets, antique shows and summer concerts.<\/p>\n

\"healdsburg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of the City of Healdsburg<\/em><\/p>\n

A not-so-subtle change has occurred in tasting wine in Healdsburg.\u00a0 There have been tasting rooms there for many years.\u00a0 But in honesty and with no disrespect intended, the wines were not very good.\u00a0 In the past few years, some excellent wineries have opened tasting rooms in town,\u00a0 including La Crema, Siduri, Clos Pegase, Stonestreet and Hartford Family<\/a>.\u00a0 Each has its own personality, from relaxed to frenzied, but you can spend a day tasting great wine without driving between wineries.<\/p>\n

There is a sort of cognitive dissonance about Healdsburg today.\u00a0 It is very much a part of Wine Country and the tourism trade that has grown up around wine tasting.\u00a0 But there is also more than a lingering memory of small-town America, especially in the plaza.\u00a0 Instead of a town to bypass on the way to the vineyards, Healdsburg is now worthy of a visit for itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Healdsburg is the gateway to the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County and a backdoor into the Russian River area as well.\u00a0 We think it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s Sonoma\u2019s culinary capital and it\u2019s quite full of tourists at all times of the year.\u00a0 These days it\u2019s also the home of many in-town tasting rooms … Continue reading Healdsburg Then and Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}